First they tried to con everybody into thinking that nobody would listen to progressive talk radio. Then when it became apparent that there was in fact an robust audience they tried to con us into thinking that nobody would support it. Of course we later found out they were working behind the scenes at the same time to get advertisers to blacklist our favorite shows. And now that progressive talk is having real political impact they are desperately looking for a way to slow it down, corrupt it, chip away at it, anything.
All over the country they are making deliberately bad business decisions by using ownership prerogatives to shut down outlets entirely, as in Madison, WI, where people rose up in revolt enough to beat them back, or in Boston where they got away with it. But they are not just attacking entire stations, they are working to replace individual personalities where they can with weaker voices.
That's what's going on in Los Angeles right now where the Harrison on the Edge show was canned with absolutely no advance warning yesterday. Harrison has been one of the most dynamic and effective activists in the country, generating thousands and thousands of citizen messages to the California legislature and our U.S. Congress with his nightly "Activism A-Go-Go" segment. This last October he was also instrumental in organizing a massive peace parade led by Arun Gandhi. If and only if you are within the signal range of KTLK in Los Angeles, please submit the action page above to complain to the station management.
Sure they are shuffling some other things around in the schedule, but the net result is they are bringing in 6 hours a day of Alan Colmes and some lukewarm moderate, Mr. KABC, who was barely being tolerated on the most conservative talk outlet in town, while they kick Harrison, a real progressive, out the door. That in and of itself is another story, in that what forced Mr. KABC out of where he had been was a push to give some of HIS air time to a full hard righty. So the net effect is an across the board shift to the right, and it is no accident.
Does it surprise you that Alan Colmes is being syndicated by Fox News?!? Are we to let Fox News tell us who our progressive talk personalities should be?! That Colmes is even a party to, that he would even sit in the same studio with the kind of sick-minded smears that Hannity traffics in on their joint cable show every day, makes him nothing but a right wing enabler, to give his weak excuse of a token protest as if that were some kind of fair balance.
So where they can't shut down an outlet entirely they are working to dilute it, to neuter it time slot by time slot, to pick us off one by one, as if we were too stupid to notice the difference. It's the Jerry Springer effect, and then when something like the Air America Radio bankruptcy takes place they jump up and say, "See, it doesn't work."
It's a right wing squeeze play, folks. It's nothing but a move to squeeze out one of our best progressive voices and see if we are chumps enough not to do anything about it. We need stronger voices not weaker ones. Well, KTLK has already had 500 emails of protest from L.A. locals just in the last 24 hours through the action page above. And if we the people will have anything to do about it there will be lots more, lots and lots more.
So if you do live in Los Angeles, and you do know what real activist radio is supposed to sound like, please submit the action page above, and let the people speak with the voice of thunder. We have just begun to speak out.
internet activist with the mission of generating as many policy messages to Congress as possible
KTLK is one of the weakest stations in L.A. If you're not in the right (as in correct) room and all the stars aren't in their proper alignment, you just can't hear them from here.
Mr. K aka Mr. KABC is a joke and a childish one at that. I just want to smack him every time he says 'better than most and not as good as some' whenever a caller says 'how are you.'
I don't know if submitting the action page will help. Heaven knows I've sent them a ton of complaint emails especially when they unceremoniously fired Steve Young.
At least two of their weekenders, Johnny Wendell and Mario Solis (sp) look like they're on their way out, as they should be. Their days and hours have been severely cut back. Both are hugely irritating.
Frankly, I don't think they have a clue what progressive radio should be, not that I really know. I do know what I like when I hear it.
In the one complaint email I sent that they answered, they admitted that they were experimenting. They better keep at it until they get it right.
Right now they only have three winners: Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes and Rachel Maddow...and Maddow they moved from a good time slot at 6 p.m. to a bad late night slot.
by
Sandy Sand (175 articles, 0 quicklinks, 223 diaries, 1503 comments)
on Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 10:30:10 AM
1 comments
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